


Nevermind the Sabre-Tooth

by chiaroscuroverse



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas, Disabled Tardis, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt/Comfort, Pete's World, Romance, Sexual Content, Telepathic Sex, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-09 11:43:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5538596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiaroscuroverse/pseuds/chiaroscuroverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor & Rose take the baby Tardis for a Christmastime spin, but end up console room camping when it goes a bit wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nevermind the Sabre-Tooth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MegaBadBunny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaBadBunny/gifts).



> Written for dwsecretsanta on Tumblr as a gift for MegaBadBunny, who asked for Tentoo and Rose on their first trip in the new Tardis! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

Jackie Tyler peered dubiously through the door of a bigger-on-the-inside blue box parked on a side street in Cardiff. “I dunno. At least the other one knew what it was doin’, but I don’t want to find myself skating on a ring of Saturn.”

Rose laughed. “No one’s even near the console! You don’t have to come in. Anyway, I’m really glad you wanted to see us off. ”

“Well, looks the same as the other if not quite so tall.”

“Yeah, ’spose we’re fond of this look. Anyway, the Doctor thinks she’ll grow bigger than the three main rooms when we start moving in and out of the vortex as well as making distance hops. The rift is good for her, but it’s not quite enough.”

“Is the larder well-stocked? You might get stuck on Mars and then what would you eat?”

“Yes, but stop with the planets! It’s a simple time travel on Earth.”

“Well, not precisely,” the Doctor said as he stepped in. “Space is inseparable from time travel, because the earth is in constant motion through space.” Rose gave him a look from behind her mother’s head. “But, right, staying within the earth’s gravitational field. So, not far.”

Jackie sighed and hugged him. “Promise me you’re being safe. I want you back for Christmas dinner.”

The Doctor didn’t bother protesting the affection. “I promise, Jackie, safe as houses.”

“Where are you going, anyway? Or, uh, what year?”

The Doctor gave Rose an exaggerated wink and clicked his tongue. “ _That_ part is the surprise I have for Rose’s Christmas!”

He dragged his hand across Rose’s back and headed up the walkway. She watched him go with a wave of affection. He was suited up for the occasion—blue pinstripes with shirt and tie, black Chucks, sexy specs. It was really happening. Her heart flipped.

“The pair of you,” Jackie said, blinking away tears. “s’beautiful. I’m so happy for you. And proud. Now let me get out of here so you can get on with it!”

Rose squeezed her. “Thank you. I love you!” 

 

Rose pulled the doors shut and turned to look at the Doctor, smiling so hard she suspected her face was going to hurt later. The Doctor winked as he practically sashayed around the Tardis console turning knobs and switches. She was hit with a wave of déjà vu – saw her younger self stepping back into the Tardis when her Doctor wore a brown suit and she was so very young… and overflowing with renewed love and excitement about their future. It was almost enough for a little bittersweetness to creep in, but she shook it off and ran to the console to co-pilot.

It was not _entirely_ the same – the Doctor pulled her to him and tilted her chin for a kiss. “Rose Tyler!” he drawled, “shall we?”

“No argument from me!”

“Allons-y! There’s just one thing.”

“What?”

“I’m sweating,” he said, pulling off his suit jacket and tossing it toward the jumpseat. “Bloody human heat, I’ll never get used to this! See, I wanted to be properly dressed for this part.”

Rose giggled. “You could do it naked if you wanted!” She bobbed on her toes a little. “Come on, I can’t take it anymore.” She put her hand on her assigned knobs and nodded at him. He nodded back and pulled the dematerialization lever.

The beautiful sound filled the air around them. Rose held her breath. Technically, they had a chance of ending up disbursed into atoms. Improbable, the Doctor had said, but possible. There was…nothing but a peaceful hum.

“Rose,” the Doctor said, brows quirked at the monitor, “we have entered the time vortex.”

“Yes!” Rose pumped her fist and ran around the console to meet the Doctor in a full-body hug. She broke away to stroke the console and the nearest coral strut, praising the Tardis for a doing such a good job.

“Ok, so, give us a clue! When are we going?”

“Patience, _darling_ ,” he said, drawling out the endearment for effect and making her roll her eyes, “I want to make sure we get there, before I unfold my wicked plans.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.

“I feel like if I get any more excited, I’ll leave my body behind.”

He grinned back. “I know exactly what you mean.”

He put his glasses back on to peer into the monitor and twist a knob or two. Whether fiddling was necessary, Rose wasn’t sure, but one thing was for certain: her Doctor was in his element. He had given himself to his human life with a full heart that surprised even her. But now she saw something in his eyes that she hadn’t realized had been missing, even during the many painstaking months he and the baby Tardis had worked building the console. Tears sprang into her eyes.

The Doctor bounced over to give her a peck on the lips. “Now, now, none of that! We have more work to do. The hard part. Sticking the landing!”

She returned to her station. “Aye, aye, captain!”

The Doctor winked, but grew serious as he flipped a few switches to begin materialization. “All right, sequence B – on my count.”

Rose placed her hands for one of the many routines she’d studied for co-piloting. But the Doctor frowned at one of his controls and the Tardis began to make a straining sound.

“What? That’s not a good—,” the Doctor began, but an explosion of sparks rocked them from underneath the console, throwing Rose on her back, head banging onto the grating. Smoke poured up and the time rotor pumped faster and faster.

“No-no-no-no, no!” shouted the Doctor, and Rose rolled over to find him scrambling to his knees and reaching up to yank controls. Her ears were ringing, and she struggled to orient herself and crawl over to help. By the time she got there, he’d frozen—staring at the console.

“Doctor?”

“We’ve entered an automatic emergency landing.”

Materialization sounded, and they came to a stop. The Doctor shook himself and grabbed a fire extinguisher to snuff out any lingering sparks.

“Wow,” Rose said. Then she laughed, feeling almost manic, and lightly punched the Doctor’s shoulder. “Oh, my God, we did it! Sort of crashed, but we’re still alive. We traveled in time!”

The Doctor stood, dimples deepening in his clenched jaw, and met her eyes before glancing away. He pulled the sonic from the same bigger-on-the-inside pocket he’d first found it in and scanned her head.

“Didn’t we? Travel in time?”

He stopped grimacing at the sonic and knocked on her head, putting on a smile. “Nothing damaged in that noggin.” She batted his hand away. He looked over at the Tardis doors and said quietly, “We definitely did travel in time.”

She raised an eyebrow at him and stood.

“Ready to see a different sky, Rose Tyler? Well, not too different, if we’re lucky.” He was putting on his adventure voice, and she knew him well enough to hear the false note. But still: adventure! What were the odds that their first proper trip would go off without a hitch, anyway? That’s not who they were. She linked her arm with his and smiled up at him. “Onward, Sir Doctor!”

They marched to the doors and the Doctor opened one. Cold air blasted their faces. He slammed it shut and they looked at each other: “Coats!”

Parkas donned, they stepped back out into what proved to be a frosty wilderness. In the distance in front of them stretched a vast whiteness. The sun was low and the air was the kind of quiet that followed a heavy snowfall.

“It’s a glacier,” the Doctor half-whispered. “There. And we’re standing on tundra.”

“Did we end up in Greenland? The North Pole? Hey, it’s Christmas, wouldn’t that be something to tell Tony!”

“Actually, I don’t think so. We’ll have to wait for the stars to come out to be sure. Hmm, I might be able to get the nav monitors back online, but I hope I’d know the stars well enough in this universe to confirm.”

“Not where you expected, right, but how far off?”

He turned to her, and cupped her cheek with a cold hand. “I was aiming for about 150 years back, same location.”

She gave him a tongue-touched smile and nuzzled his hand. “Our Cardiff Christmas.”

“And I think the spatio-locator stayed locked on, so we’re still here.”

“In Cardiff? But-.” She looked around.

“The last great ice age ended, oh, twelve thousand years ago.”

“Ohh.” She walked around the Tardis, saw water that direction, and came back to hug him. “Doctor?” He just looked at her—he was worried. “We’re in the ice age!” She laughed, threw out her arms, and spun. “This is brilliant! I love the ice age. I used to draw woolly mammoths in school.”

He still didn’t look happy, and she was suddenly annoyed.

“What is with you? This is us, back in the game!” She jumped up and down a couple times for emphasis.

“Dematerialization is _frozen_ , Rose. I’ll take a closer look when we get inside, but I have to warn you. We could very well be stuck here.”

“We’re stuck somewhere! Of course we are! God, I’ve missed this.”

“Rose…” Irritation flashed across his face.

“Don’t tell me! We might even have to live in the ice age, right? Foreverrr!”

He stared at her, anger dimples again making an appearance. Then he sighed. “You’re impossible.”

“And _you_ are going to figure something out. You always do. And if you don’t, I will. Shiver and Shake!” She kissed him and pulled him back toward the Tardis doors. “Stop worrying! We’ll get her fixed and maybe I can see a sabre- tooth tiger before we leave!”

“Sabre-tooth cat.”

“Shut it.”

 

The Doctor crawled under the grating to evaluate the damage while Rose stayed above to assist, until it became clear he was going to spend most of the time having a staring contest with various components. She sighed and went off to get her book. Eventually, she put their dinner together and dragged him out to eat. He was bedraggled and sooty, tie long since thrown somewhere.

He slumped into a chair in the galley and pinched the top of his nose. She pushed a plate in front of him. “Well, what’s it looking like?”

“The good news is that I think I have a plan. We might _not_ have to live here for the rest of our natural lives after all. Couldn’t have sworn to it earlier.” He wolfed his dinner, mumbling, “This tastes brilliant. I was starving.”

She waited.

“But you’re probably not going to like the solution.”

“I won’t like or _you_ don’t like it?”

He ignored that. “My former Tardis was thousands of years old and had massive stores of matter and energy. She could do a lot of self-repair. This Tardis has very little to spare and we’re going to have to divert everything we can toward her healing circuits. She can recreate the burned out parts, but it won’t be easy.”

“Of course. We’ll do whatever it takes.”

“But I’m afraid our bedroom is going to have to go, maybe a lot of the galley. We’ll be at essential functions. Temperature control and lights might go a bit…wobbly.” He rubbed his neck, a pained look on his face. “Are you okay with that?”

That explained his apprehension. Though she’d spent years paying little attention to the décor in her flat, their Tardis bedroom became her favorite project. It was finally something that felt like home to her and the Doctor equally. She had brought in soft linens and carefully chosen furniture and artwork. And the Tardis had grown the enormous bed directly out of the floor with her own coral. It sported small twisting columns instead of bedposts. Losing the bedroom was going to sting.

“Hey, listen to me.” She kissed his knuckles. “We do _whatever_ it takes! I guess we should move our things out.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“We’ll get it back. Hey, one question – if the Tardis can make her own repair parts, why did we spend so much time digging through dirty piles in shops all over the universe?”

His eyebrows levered toward his hair. “Um, well, I like old shops.”

“Unbelievable.”

 

Together, they stripped the luxurious covers from their bed. Rose figured that the plush topper could be removed from the mattress and doubled up to form a comfortable bed mat for them. They dragged it out, and after a lot of pushing and shoving, managed to arrange it against the curving coral wall behind the jump seat. Rose plopped on it and declared it would do quite nicely.

They returned for the linens and every blanket and pillow in the bedroom. Rose took all the personal pictures and decorations from the wall while the Doctor gathered armfuls of clothes from the wardrobe and draped them over the back of the jumpseat. Once everything they needed was in the console room, they rested on their new bed. 

“So what’s next?” Rose asked.

“Next I give the command to jettison the rooms, and then we wait. And hope.” The Doctor flopped back onto a fluffy pile of blankets and rubbed his face. He was down to rolled-up shirtsleeves and his top buttons were open. His face and hair were a dusty mess, and he looked sexy as hell. Rose was tempted to climb on top of him, but he seemed in no mood. Yet.

“Will the storage cabinets be all right?” She referred to several compartments behind panels around the console room which held various collections of equipment in lieu of a storeroom.

“Yes, they’re part of this room, and we’re keeping everything here. Listen, if you want a chance with that bathtub, better go, because I have a feeling it won’t be there after.”

“Good idea. How long have we been here, anyway?”

“We left home at 9:27 and it’s now 6:55 p.m.—our time.”

“Is that all? Feels like ages.” Rose stretched and rubbed his chest affectionately. “I think I’ll head in there and have a soak. Why don’t you join me? Last bathtub hurrah!”

“Sounds wonderful. Though I should go check out those stars.”

“Don’t go alone. I don’t want the tigers to get you,” she teased, and he pulled her over for a gentle kiss.

“I promise not to end up in the belly of a beast. Go to it. I’ll be along.”

“Don’t be long, love.” She pulled off her jumper and bra and exaggerated the sway of her hips as she walked away toward the hall.

“Minx.”

“You love it!” she called back. She started the bathwater and went back to peek and confirm her suspicion. He lay in the same spot, feet on the floor, knees splayed, and eyes closed. So much for seducing him in the tub. She was still amped and ready for a shag, but it might have to wait until morning.

She settled in for a soak in the spacious bathroom, sending thanks to the young Tardis for making them such beautiful things, along with reassurance that she should do what she needed to heal and get them out into the universe again. She got a bright hum in return. This Tardis even _sounded_ young compared to what Rose remembered. It gave Rose maternal feelings that she felt half-silly for indulging (even though she and the Doctor regularly referred to the Tardis as “our baby”). But she continued to pet the wall for a minute.

 

Scrubbed and pruned and wearing a vest and shorts, Rose scooped their bath products into a basket and returned to the pallet, and sure enough, the Doctor was asleep. She shook him awake. “I’m all done. Should we go ahead?”

He rolled up and pressed his hand into his forehead for a moment before running his hands through already wild hair. “I’m sorry. I missed the bath.”

“S’ok.” She grabbed his hand to pull him to standing. “Let’s do it.”

They walked to the console and the Doctor typed in some commands, closed his eyes, and concentrated on his link with the Tardis. There was a soft sound and the hallway disappeared.

She turned around and found their spacious, modern galley was replaced by a tiny kitchenette along one wall. At least it seemed the full larder had been moved to a space in the wall next to it. She went to check the only remaining door from the console room, and found a small loo with a corner shower.

The Doctor blew out a breath. “Well, that’s that. I’d better get cleaned up. Extra sorry I missed that bath now.” He rubbed his forehead again, and Rose cottoned on to it.

“Hey, how’s your head? Is it happening?” she asked, walking over and laying a soft hand on his temple.

He shrugged. “Well…s’been one of those days.” He went for a lopsided smile. “What I get for being brilliant!”

“All right.” She kissed his jaw. “Go shower and I’ll take care of it when you get out.” He smiled at her gratefully and headed for the loo, gathering a few necessities along the way.

“All right, girl,” Rose said, “let’s see how to get a cuppa out of this new system.”

By the time the Doctor came out—bare-chested, jimjams barely hanging on to his narrow hips—Rose was ready with two steaming mugs on a makeshift end table she’d fashioned from a box. The overhead lights were off and only the glow of the time rotor lit his path. He sat next to her on the bed so gingerly that she wondered how long he’d been in pain.

“You know,” said Rose, after a few moments of silent sipping, “I have to say this room is the most _domestic_ any Tardis has ever been. Could you have imagined this when you first met me?”

The Doctor looked slowly around the room and back at her. “I can assure you, when I first met you I imagined _none_ of this.” He grinned. A real, proper one for the first time since the day started going sideways. “I mean, the sheer number of pillows!”

“I know! And a couple of them my _mum_ made!”

The Doctor made a disgusted face, which cracked Rose up, and said, “Oi, remind me which ones those are so I can toss them away at crucial moments.” He groaned. “I’m sorry, laughing is making it worse. I’m ready if you are.”

She sat with her back to a stack of pillows she’d piled against the wall, legs stretched in front of her. The Doctor sat between her calves and lay back to rest his head on the top of her thighs. It was a position they’d had many—too many—chances to perfect. He closed his eyes as she began to massage his head, circling her fingers across his forehead and drawing them back. She noticed with a smile that even in these circumstances, he’d put a bit of styling wax on his clean hair. Apparently they could make camp in the console room, but waking with “fluffy” hair was out of the question. Still, it was touchable (and smelled delicious), so as she went she teased the strands into a look that wouldn’t distress him. The routine was for him, to ease the pain in his mind, but the pleasure of his hair running through her fingers was all hers.

The headaches were a sort of side effect that they hadn’t been able to solve—a bit of conflict that cropped up under stress when his part-human body got overtaxed by his still-telepathic Time Lord brain. But they’d discovered that Rose’s hands could dissipate it.

Every so often he made a soft sound of relief. She worked her hands under his neck with firm strokes and indulged herself a little by sliding the backs of her hands across his stubble. Now that he was primed, she pressed two fingers gently over each temple and circled them.

Since she wasn’t telepathic herself, she couldn’t entirely connect with him this way, but an otherworldly sort of tingle always passed through her hands. She would concentrate hard to try to catch his emotions as they flowed out through her, and sometimes she got a glimpse. Most often, it was relief. Sometimes anger, if the headache had been triggered by bad interactions. Right now, it was heavy frustration. Love, always love, eventually. And frequently a good dose of lust. She was ready to catch that one and run with it.

She concentrated on sending love through her fingers when the tingling feeling was strongest. The Doctor gasped her name and tears dropped from the corners of both his eyes. He took a few deep breaths. “Oh, thank you,” he whispered.

She continued, now concentrating on her desire as she looked at his body. His arms flailed a bit until he found her ankles to grasp. Comfort was over—she was blatantly arousing him. She was thrilled to see a bulge growing under his pajamas and squirmed a little.

He stilled her hands. “Rose Tyler…”

“All better?” she asked with mock innocence.

With a speed that still amazed her, he flipped over and dragged her down to the bed. His fist closed on her hair and he dove at her with a deep, open mouth kiss. He broke off and sucked at her neck, squeezing his way down her body, breasts, hips, up between her thighs. He pulled at her clothes. “I need you. So much. Now?”

“Yes…yes,” she said, scooting to kick off her shorts. After getting his own trousers off, he shoved her vest up without bothering to pull it off. Kissing her again with an edge of desperation that made her heart clench and her arousal spike, he pushed into her hard and fast. He pulled her knee up around his hip, angling and touching her like the expert on her body he was. He murmured her name between moans, until the last one was a question and she was answering yes. His fingers went to her temple and he burst into her mind in a shower of love and pleasure and she exploded along with him.

 

Later in the night, her eyes followed the pattern of shadows thrown by the time rotor onto the ceiling. Her mind and body hummed in tune with the Tardis. The Doctor pressed against her side, chin in her hair, tracing Gallifreyan patterns across her belly. They hadn’t spoken aloud yet and she indulged a dreamy fantasy that they would never need to speak again to understand each other and would drift here, warm inside a frozen wilderness, forever.

 

She awoke to the Tardis lights back up on daytime power. The Doctor was dressed in a bright t-shirt and trousers. She could feel his lighter mood from across the room as he grabbed a tray and called out, “Good morning, my love!”

She groaned and pulled a pillow over her face. But the smell of toast and jam called her back and she sat up. He looked so pleased with himself as he presented their breakfast that she couldn’t help but grin back.

“So,” she said between bites. “What are we going to do today?”

“Today,” he paused to smooch her forehead, “we explore the glacier!”

And they did. He pulled a full load of ice walking equipment from a storage compartment (“When did you get that?” “Protective gear for planetary seasonal extremes is basic supply for a Tardis, Rose”) and they suited up. Rose was certain they would end up in a crevasse or fighting off a sabre tooth, but he set the sonic to detect gaps in the ice and Rose carried a stun gun. The Doctor assured her was powerful enough to take down megafauna if necessary. (She suspected it was liberated from Torchwood’s archives.) As it turned out, they had a peaceful hike, the Doctor pointing out the tops of mountains and explaining how the path of the very glacier upon which they stood was carving the familiar mountains and valleys of Wales. Rose thoroughly enjoyed the exertion and they slept hard that night.

 

The third day they stayed in their bedclothes, playing card games and inventing ways to shag around the console room. Later, the Doctor went below deck and reported that the Tardis was indeed healing and she had generated several of the necessary parts already.

 

The fourth day she woke up shivering. “As I feared, central heating system’s gone offline,” the Doctor said, pulling on extra clothes.

She hurried to add layers as well and asked, through chattering teeth, “So how bad off are we? We need to build a fire or something?”

“It shouldn’t get any colder than this. The central column is still generating heat, and if need be, we’ll get below and sit next to it. But I think we can cocoon here.” He over-pronounced “cocoon” with an eyebrow waggle and she giggled. “I’ll get us some food and a thermos to keep nearby. The loo is going to be quite cold. Nothing to be done about that.”

It was. Rose got done nearly freezing her arse off and returned to find the Doctor had put on a knit cap and layered every blanket they had on top of their pallet–and spread the throw pillows on top of that for good measure. She grabbed an extra pair of socks and got into the little nest. He tossed her a hat as well and slid in to spoon behind her. It took a little time for their body heat to build and stop her shivering, but eventually it got quite nice and she found herself drifting to sleep again.

The overhead lighting never did come on that day. They ate out of tins and sipped tea and water and talked. She asked for stories she’d never heard before and he told her about a girl who stowed away on the R101. She told him about a dimension jump that left her devastated and wishing she could quit, if the whole world hadn’t been depending on her.

He was quiet for a while. “Rose. I-I want tell you something.”

She turned in his arms to look at him and comb his hair back with her fingers.

“When this trip went wrong, I was so afraid.” He closed his eyes and she waited. “I was afraid my ability to wriggle out of tight spots was gone along with my heart and we’d been fooling ourselves. I mean, look at me, I can’t even properly think my way through a problem without my head exploding. I looked at those ruined pieces and I thought well, this is it, I’ve finally trapped her and she’ll die here and never see her family again.”

“Oh, my Doctor.” She pecked his lips. “We never stay trapped.”

“Never say never ever.”

“And even that. I was right after all, wasn’t I?”

“That’s just it, Rose. Your faith in me. It’s more than I’ve ever deserved, especially now. I have less to offer you than I ever did.” His face crumpled.

“You ridiculous Time Lord. You don’t understand. _Now_ you’ve given me your entire life. You came with me and you stayed.”

He clutched at her back, pulled her tighter, choked out a sob. “I literally don’t know how I could live this life without you, and that terrifies me more than anything.” 

She rolled on top of him and rubbed her face against the scruff he hadn’t shaved since they got here. “You won’t ever have to.”

 

The heat came back on sometime that night and in the morning the lights were bright and happier looking. They’d kicked off all the covers. The Doctor checked out the system and reported that she was nearly ready to dematerialize again. Rose suggested they go out and explore a bit in the other direction from the glacier.

The sun shone brighter than the first time. They hiked across tundra and found a gorgeous lake where the sun shimmered. Rose stopped and pulled the Doctor around. “Look!” she said in a loud whisper.

An Irish elk stood at the lakeshore, looking right at them, head held proudly with gigantic antlers jutting out a seemingly impossible distance.

“Oh, Doctor, he’s gorgeous! I’ve seen pictures, but this is amazing.” She crept toward the elk, and made it about ten feet closer before he turned and bounded off. She ran back to squeeze the Doctor and they beamed at each other.

They’d taken a lunch break, enjoyed the sights of some smaller tundra animals, and were getting ready to head back when Rose noticed vibrations running through the ground. The Doctor put on his glasses and peered off into the distance.

“I think we’d better gather our things.”

She watched the horizon in amazement. Large, brown heads appeared and she soon realized they were staring at a herd.

“Mammoths!” she shouted, “I can’t believe this is real!”

“Yes, right, and they’re heading this way.” He shouldered his pack and held out a hand to her. “Shall we?”

“Not yet, not yet, I have to get a closer look. God, they’re so big!”

The herd was stomping toward them at a decent clip. The ground rumbled. Rose’s heart raced.

“Rose!”

She whipped around and grabbed his hand, tongue in her teeth. “Ok! Run!”

They sprinted for the Tardis. The door slammed behind them and they both fell panting against it. Rose laughed so hard that tears fell to her cheeks. “Doctor! We ran for our lives! We just ran for our lives to the Tardis!”

He grinned back. “We did!” He ran to the console. “Let’s see if we’re ready to leave. Don’t fancy getting knocked over after all this.”

“Do you think they could? Knock her over?”

He wobbled his head back and forth. “Well…it wouldn’t have happened in the old Tardis, but our baby here, she’s less _experienced_.” He initiated the sequence. “That’s it, come on!”

Rose couldn’t resist – she cracked the door and listened to the reverberations, peeked a little farther. A long tusk passed right over the door, followed by the huge hairy bulk of a mammoth. He was followed by another and another, from both sides. She was mesmerized.

“Close the door!” the Doctor called.

She resisted the urge to try to touch one of the beasts and slammed the door shut. “Ready for me?”

“Yes, same as last time, let’s give it a go…now!”

They did their parts, and the beautiful wheezing filled the air. “Oh, yes!” the Doctor shouted. “Goodbye, ice age!”

“We missed the sabre-tooths.”

“Probably for the best.”

 

The Doctor determined it had been a mistake to immediately exit the vortex the first time, so they settled in to float for a while and spend another night on their pallet bed. Rose had no objection. She lay awake with her head atop the Doctor’s single heartbeat, feeling his chest rise and fall and watching the time rotor glow in the semi-darkness. She thanked the Tardis for working so hard to fix herself, for taking care of them, and being their home. Rejoining normal life didn’t feel so appealing. Then she remembered her Mum, and Christmas.

In the morning they took their time dressing and having breakfast. Rose pleaded with the Doctor not to shave yet, and nuzzled him for a while, telling him how sexy he was to drive home the point. She was a little surprised it worked, but next thing she knew he was rambling about the manliness of beards and how it was about time one of his regenerations sported one.

She left her shower and found the Doctor back in his suit, sonicked to clean crispness. She came to give him a kiss and play with his tie. “Time to go, eh?”

“Everything checks out. She’s feeling confident. The vortex is doing her a world of good. There’s just one thing…”

“What’s that?”

“You’ll need to wear something other than that towel. Not that I’m complaining.”

She laughed. “If you insist.”

“Rose, I brought an early Christmas present for you. Well, in our linear time it would already be Christmas, but—.” He indicated a large box on the jump seat. “It’s something you needed for my original plan. I’d like to give it to you now.”

She teared up even before she got the box open—why did it feel like she already knew? Lacy black bodice, cape, red skirt, patterned stockings, and those boots. She lifted each piece out. “How?”

The Doctor wrapped his arms around her from behind. “Found some, had some made. There was nowhere else I wanted to take you for our first trip. Would you wear it for me? I’m going to try again, er, we are, together, but even if we don’t get to that spot, I want to touch your shoulders and kiss you the way I wished for then.”

“Blimey, how could I refuse? I would _love_ to. Thank you! This is…gorgeous.” Her voice broke and tears spilled on her cheeks. “I just love you so much.”

“My Rose. I love you too.”

 

The doors opened on falling snow. Rose put her arm through his, and together they walked off in search of Charles Dickens.


End file.
